Pumpkin Patch
by Candaru
Summary: Darkley's School for Bad Boys takes its students on a field trip to a pumpkin patch. And while Lloyd Garmadon isn't the best student in his class, he's going to have fun anyway. (Lloyd & Brad friendship fic. Set pre-S1, no slash, rated T for safety.)


(me: I want to write an atmospheric fall drabble!

me, 30 minutes later: how did this turn into yet another friendship fic)

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Field trips were an extremely rare thing for the boys at Darkley's. Rarer still was an occasion in which they were not only allowed to wear something other than their uniforms (though of course the best students always managed to slip past dress code unnoticed), but were actually _demanded_ to do so.

So it was in this rare-and-you'd-better-be-grateful-for-it-while-it-lasts mood that the young Lloyd Garmadon raced over the criss-crossed wire fence and into a deserted section of the pumpkin patch with his friends.

"Hey, wait up!" the boy cried, struggling a little more than his peers to scale the obstacle before him. Two kids laughed in response and one slapped his butt while he tried to climb; nobody waited as he'd asked, but of course he didn't really expect them to, and at this moment in time it didn't bother him. Today was a special day and the adrenaline rush of a field trip seemed to bond the students together anyway.

"Hey, Lloyd! Hurry up!" called a student only a little taller than the struggling blond boy, but with a much louder and more boisterous voice. Lloyd grinned and hopped off the top of the fence, ignoring the pain that shot through his foot when he didn't stick the landing exactly as he'd hoped.

"Where are we gonna go first?" he asked, looking at the large group of students already splitting off into pairs or groups of three to explore the more populated areas of the pumpkin patch. There was no official buddy system, but everyone knew better than to wander off by themselves and risk getting left behind by the others as a prank. (Lloyd learned _that_ lesson on the _first_ field trip they went on.)

The taller boy— Bradley was his name, but everyone knew better than to call him that— grinned in a cocky, slanted fashion and pointed straight ahead. "This is the back of the patch, so the tractors oughta be just a few yards from here. They're great for climbing." He adjusted his newly-stolen orange cap upon a mess of black, ruffled hair, as if preparing for a mission. A wind gust blew by as he did so, blowing back his too-big hoodie and adding a dramatic flair to his actions.

"Then let's go! Race ya!" Lloyd shouted eagerly, already breaking into a sprint. Not seeming bothered by the smaller boy's head-start, Brad flashed his teeth and shot forward as well, hollering some overused trash talk because he didn't have time to come up with something original. Lloyd didn't pay any attention to what he was saying; he was too busy pumping his little legs forward as fast as they could go and enjoying the feeling of wind rushing past him.

Lloyd loved fall. He loved every bit of it. The way the weather got colder and nipped at his nose, but not so much that it turned it red like a clown's, and how the leaves all burst into color from their boring old shades of green into better, eviler colors like orange and red. (Actually, green was Lloyd's second-favorite color, after black, but green leaves just _felt_ dumb. Like something out of some little kid's storybook with a fluffy good moral and a happy ending. Not that anybody had ever read him any, but he'd stolen one from a bookstore once out of curiosity.)

"You're falling behind, Garma- _dork!"_ Brad shouted, snapping Lloyd out of his thoughts as he surpassed him.

"I'm just catching my BREATH!" he yelled back as he sped up, silently reprimanding himself for not coming up with any better. Oh well. The wind rushed faster and faster as he pushed his tiny body to its limits, towards a big green beautiful rusty tractor in the distance.

The wind was probably Lloyd's _favorite_ part of fall. It was strong and cold and POWERFUL, and if you leapt right into it at the right angle and opened your jacket it felt like it was going to lift you right off the planet, or if you outstretched your hand and held it up to the air you could _feel_ the power rushing against your palm and through your fingertips. And if it got going really fast it howled like a wolf, and if you wanted to and you had some paper you could make airplanes with little spit balls in them and climb up to a high place and let 'em go and they'd soar right over to your target, like they were being flown by actual pilots, and if you timed it right the spit balls would fall out of the little cut you made in the bottom and then everyone would cheer.

"I WIN!" the dark-haired boy yelled in triumph, slamming his hand against the tractor and stopping abruptly to catch his breath. Lloyd wasn't far behind, and stuck his tongue out at the winner as he used his momentum to hop up onto the tractor.

"You don't win until you're _on_ the tractor!" he retaliated, scrambling up the hunk of metal with his undersized hands. Brad made a noise and tried to yank him down by his cape, but Lloyd kicked backwards, effectively pushing him off. He thought that was the end, but then he felt a pair of hands grab his foot as they were falling and the next thing Lloyd knew he was lying face-down on his friend, who was trying to push him off to get back up.

"Hah, I touched the tractor before you," Lloyd said, blowing a raspberry and using all the might left in him to keep the other boy bound to the earthy ground below.

"Did not!" Brad cried, trying to squirm out of the runt's death grip.

"Did too—" Lloyd started, and it actually sounded like he was getting angry before he suddenly burst out into a fit of giggles. Below him, Brad grinned evilly, tickling him under the armpits. (Brad's evil grin was _really_ good. The teacher gave him a gold star for it last semester.)

"N-no— hahahaha!— fair— EEK—! Get off-ha, ahahahaha—" The blond finally succumbed, lying helplessly in a fit of giggles as Brad ran back up the tractor and sat triumphantly on the top, crossing his arms.

"There! I win!" he declared happily, black eyes glittering. Lloyd's laughter subsided as he pushed himself up and shrugged.

"Well, whatever. I wasn't even going my fastest at the beginning," he said, and this time Brad didn't say anything, even though they both knew he was lying. "Where do you wanna go next?"

"We should figure out what pumpkins we're gonna steal," the boy replied with a thoughtful expression. "They didn't tell us how to get the best grade, but I think whoever steals the biggest pumpkin will win."

"Why not the most expensive?" suggested Lloyd. "Or the most."

Brad shook his head. "Everybody knows biggest is always best," he said, and then thumped a hand to his chest as if proving his point. Which, he kind of was.

" _Carl's_ bigger than you," Lloyd pointed out.

"Pff. Carl doesn't know how to steal a pack of gum without getting caught," Brad stated, and then hopped off the throne he'd fought tooth and nail to claim without a second thought. "C'mon, let's start pumpkin-hunting. The goods are all at the front."

Lloyd nodded and got up on his own, brushing the dirt off his cape and pants. He followed the larger boy in awe, thinking how much he wished he were taller and stronger like him.

It wasn't until years later that a boy with blond hair and a green scarf blowing in the wind would return to this exact spot in the pumpkin patch, coffee in hand scented like the essence of fall, and realize just how little both boys had really been.

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(I literally just wanted to write about fall and decided to write about Lloyd so lloydskywalkers-senpai would like it) (As always reviews feed my muse, why do you think I like lloydskywalkers-senpai so much)


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